Miriam Troostwyk - May 28, 1998 and June 3, 1999

Dance Lessons

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Um, this--I meant to ask you...

We had dancing lessons in 1942, from uh, from uh, from uh--David Santcroos. David--he had one record. It was a German record, I'll never forget, Dort in der ???, it was in 1942. And so he learned Edith and me the quick step. He was talking, "One! And two! And one, two, three!" Or something like that. And I was the man and he told me how I have to hold her. And then he told me the steps and told her and she had to follow me. Then he took that same record again, she was the man. I was the girl. So he told her to do it and how to make a bow. Men have to make a bow when they ask a lady to dance.

Oh, a bow, a bow.

But, yes. And it was always that one record. And uh, it kept him busy. He was talking like a dancing teacher. And we were laughing and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and uh, teen ??? thirty years.

And there was no worry that someone would hear all that?

Well, the house was a roof like this and it was divided. And there was a couple living next to it, an older couple with one son, very quiet people, very nice people. We were always um, how do you say that um, whispering. But when a lot of people whisper, it's like in shul, then you hear something, yes? So they heard something and they knew there was something going on, but they never, ever said, during the war, to the neighbors,
"Do you have people in hiding or what?" Never. They understood everything.

And if you...

Very refined people.

And if you were dancing and playing records, that probably would...

Well, it was not upstairs, it was downstairs...

Oh.

in the, the, the room on the front of the street. Uh, but the living room was from the couple and that was next to the corridor from the other house, from uh, so they couldn't hear it in uh, and when you play downstairs, a record, everybody can make music downstairs, so they could make...